Empathy in Iranian medical students: Measurement model of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy

Abstract

Background: Empathy is an important factor in patient-physician relationship that has beneficial effects in medical practice. Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) has been specifically designed to assess empathy in health professionals (HP-version) and related students (S-version). Few validation studies have been performed on S-version of the scale. Aims: To examine empathy in a large sample of Iranian medical students, and also to study factor structure and psychometric properties of the Persian translation of the S-version of the JSE. Method: 1187 medical students (759 female) from 16 universities around the country participated in the study during 2009. Independent sample t-test, multivariate analysis of variance, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to analyze the data. Results: Female students outscored male students in empathy. The trend for empathy had a negative relationship with years of education. JSE showed an acceptable internal consistency and test re-test reliability. CFA upheld the original three-factor structure -Perspective Taking, Compassionate Care, and Standing in the Patient's Shoes -consisting 20 items. Conclusion: The decrease in empathy during medical education is consistent with previous studies. The Persian version of JSE is a valid and reliable measure to tap empathy in a Persian-speaking medical student.

Is the Empathy Level of Medical Students at KAU Changeable along their Study Years? What is behind this Change?

“…This was in disagreement with what was reported about American and Iranian medical students who having increase level of empathy in basics year comparing to the clinical years. They explained this by the fact that these students were put through a course to implementing ethics and communication skills training in the curriculum in the basic years aiming to improving the doctor-patient relationship in clinical practice [13,16].…”

Empathy, Components of Empathy and Curricular Evaluation of the Faculty of Dentistry, Evangelical University of El Salvador

“…It has been demonstrated 22 that there is gender variability in relation to empathy in a study in 18 dental schools in Latin America. As a consequence, it is not possible to state categorically that women are more empathetic than men in all populations studied, despite the fact that authors have observed the opposite [8,[23][24][25][26][27].…”

Evaluation of student empathy level during the first five years of medical education at ankara university

“…Also, most of the researchers agree that on entering the clinical practice phase of training, and with increased contact with patients, empathy declines significantly (Neumann et al, 2011). Shariat and Habibi's (2013) study showed that the decline of empathy in medical education is not limited to medical schools in the Western world. The obtained lowest score should be related to not having a constructed communication skills training program during clerkships and internship in our school.…”

“…The gender difference in empathy has been attributed to intrinsic factors (e.g., evolutionary-biological gender characteristics) as well as extrinsic factors (e.g., interpersonal style in caring, socialization, and gender role expectation) (Hojat et al, 2002). Several studies have suggested that female medical students (Hojat et al, 2002;Chen et al, 2007;Hojat et al, 2009;Kataoka et al, 2009;Shariat and Habibi 2013;Wen et al, 2013) gain a higher score of empathy, possibly because they tend to value interpersonal relationships highly and have more competent understanding of emotions and caring attitude. On the other hand, few studies have shown no gender difference in empathy (Roh et al2010;Hamed et al, 2015).…”

“…Many of the studies about empathy show that empathy declines during medical school (Hojat et al, 2004;Stepien & Baernstein 2006;Chen et al, 2007;Newton et al,2008;Fernandez Olano et al, 2008;Lim et al, 2011;Neumann et al, 2011;Van Winkle et al, 2012;Chen et al, 2012;Shariat & Habibi 2013). Unsuitable learning environments, cynicism/loss of idealism (Hojat et al, 2004;Newton et al, 2008), distress (Neumann et al, 2011), hidden curriculum (Eikeland et al, 2014), negative role-models, a high volume of materials to learn, time pressure, patient factors and overreliance on computer-based diagnostic and therapeutic technology can affect the students and cause a decline in empathy.…”